Porter Regional Discusses Shoulder, Hip Joint Replacement Options

As folks get older, the body starts to work against them.

It is nature’s way of slowing us down. But when that wear-and-tear begins to impair quality of life, joint replacement surgery may become a viable option for some people.

On Thursday evening at the Sand Creek Country Club in Chesterton, Porter Regional Hospital hosted a discussion on joint replacement surgery and options focused on the shoulders and the hips. Doctors Anthony Levenda, M.D., and Michael Leland, M.D., spoke at the seminar, which was aimed at the issues seniors face in those joints as they age.

Originally, Dr. Thomas Kay was scheduled to give the talk on shoulder joints, but was unable to attend and was replaced by Dr. Levenda.

During his talk, Dr. Levenda emphasized the importance of the rotator cuff -- and collection of four muscles that keep the ball-and-socket joint in place -- in the overall role of shoulder health. While the deltoid does the heavy lifting, Dr. Levenda said, the shoulder relies most heavily on the rotator cuff to work properly.

“Think of it like playing golf,” Dr. Levenda said. “A lot of people spend $700-$1,000 on a good driver, but don’t spend very much money on a tee. Without the tee, however, you’re going to have a hard time driving the ball 300 yards-plus. Tiger Woods and those guys on TV aren’t going to be making all that money. The rotator cuff is like the tee, holding the shoulder joint in place.”

Dr. Levenda also pointed out that different pains in the shoulder, back, neck and arm may be associated with the wrong body parts. He said he works closely with spine specialists and they refer patients back and forth to each other depending on whether the pain is coming from a source in the neck or in the shoulder.

Hip pain is usually much easier to diagnose, and hip replacement surgery was the topic of Dr. Leland’s presentation.

“The idea is, when people can’t walk -- unfortunately, we have to walk on our feet -- a painful hip is tremendous destructive to the quality of one’s life,” Dr. Leland said. “One of the saddest, most gut-wrenching pleas that I had was from a 75-year-old lady who said, ‘Dr. Leland, I can’t play with my grandchildren anymore.’ Her hip was destroyed by arthritis, so we gave her a new hip.

“People will come back and say, ‘You’ve given me my life back.’ Of course, I don’t give people’s lives back, but I do an operation that helps improve the quality of their life.”

Dr. Leland’s minimally invasive hip replacement surgery avoids cutting any muscles, greatly improving recovery time and allowing patients to walk -- or even shovel snow, but not jump -- the day of the surgery. But even with the improvements across joint replacement surgeries, Dr. Leland warns against operations that are not completely necessary.

“I’m pretty slow to the knife,” Dr. Leland said. “People who demonstrate a significant impairment to their quality of life, and after we talk about the pros and cons, if they’re willing to accept the risks -- because even with the operation the way I do it, there are still risks; they’re all the same risks, they’re just less -- then we go ahead and do surgery. I fear that they are being recommended too soon for people who might not really need a hip replacement.”

Still, sometimes joint replacement surgery is the best route. And in those instances, it can be a life-changing experience.

“I don’t want a very young person to have a hip replacement that 30 years later or 40 years later wears out. I try never to do a hip replacement younger than 55,” Dr. Leland said. “On the other hand, just a month ago I did a hip replacement on a young person with avascular necrosis of the hip. He is 20 years old. With his hip disease, he is completely disabled. With a hip replacement, he can resume normal, healthy function. And he is tremendously happier.”

Porter Regional Hospital’s May Community Wellness Events will touch on sinus issues, joint replacement, and back pain. Click here for a listing of May events.